The Boston Celtics are making progress on a deal that would bring Shaquille O’Neal to the defending Eastern Conference champions, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deal was not yet final.

Earlier Tuesday, the four- time NBA champion said he will be in the league next season and would rather retire than play internationally.

The 38-year-old O’Neal spent last season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He won three NBA titles with the Lakers and another with the Miami Heat, but he’s struggled to find a contract from a team that can guarantee him playing time, enough money and a chance for one more championship.

The Celtics have been looking for big men because center Kendrick Perkins is expected to miss at least half the season with a knee injury he suffered in the NBA Finals.

Wright’s call untraceable

Police dispatchers didn’t alert patrol officers or commanders to a 911 call from the phone of former NBA player Lorenzen Wright because they couldn’t confirm that it came from inside their suburban Memphis jurisdiction, documents show.

The body of the 34-year-old, a Clippers first-round pick in 1996, was found in the woods in Memphis on July 28 after he had been missing for 10 days. He was shot to death, and police are looking for the killer or killers of the beloved Memphis sports hero.

Germantown dispatcher Claudia Kenley Woods said the police department’s mapping system couldn’t plot the precise location of the call placed in the early morning hours of July 19, but the latitude and longitude indicated it came from outside their town. Woods and her supervisor, Lt. Donald Taylor, said they couldn’t tell the phone belonged to Wright.

When investigators finally learned of the call July 27, they used information from it to launch the search that found Wright’s body.

James thanks hometown

LeBron James has extended an olive branch to his Ohio hometown in the form of a full-page newspaper ad, days before making his first public appearance in Akron since leaving for the Miami Heat.

“Akron is my home, and the central focus of my life,” James wrote in the Akron Beacon Journal. “It’s where I started, and it’s where I will always come back to.”

Conspicuously absent from the ad is any mention of Cleveland, home of the Cavaliers, the team that James famously dumped in a much-maligned ESPN television special last month. The ad features photographs of James at his annual charity bike-athon, where he hands out hundreds of bicycles and joins a mile-long ride through downtown Akron.

Despite speculation that James might skip the event, he said he plans to show up Saturday.

Also …

A person familiar with the decision said Orlando agreed to a new deal with free-agent point guard Jason Williams. … Guard Von Wafer signed with Boston. … Miami signed veteran guard Eddie House to a $2.8 million, two-year contract. … Denver declined to extend the contracts of executives Mark Warkentien and Rex Chapman.